FLOW in the News – 2021 Archive

Mark Wilson and Ryan Buck's latest "New Leonard" podcast features FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood.

Michigan residents would pay 3 to 6 cents more for a bottle of water under a plan to sustain Great Lakes water improvements. In addition, bottled water companies would pay 25 cents per gallon of water they pump from the ground to package and sell under the plan proposed by For Love of Water, a nonprofit environmental organization in Traverse City. The plan would put an estimated $250 million annually into a water trust fund to replace lead lines, create water affordability plans and emergency water funds, said Liz Kirkwood, FLOW’S executive director.

FLOW joined 138 other organizations in petitioned the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to suspend the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s water futures market, which is based on the availability of water rights in California. The letter from Food & Water Watch details a range of serious problems with Nasdaq Veles California Water Index Futures, which were self-certified by the CME before their launch one year ago. It is the world’s first market for water futures contracts. The comment was co-signed by FLOW, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Southern California Watershed Alliance, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, National Family Farm Coalition, Public Citizen, and more than 130 other organizations.

"FLOW unequivocally supports Food & Water Watch's efforts to stop the commodification of water,” said Executive Director Liz Kirkwood. “Water is a fundamental human right held in trust by the states for the public, not something to be speculated on by profiteers."

Traverse City-based For Love of Water, agreed with Ms. Nessel that Enbridge missed its chance to file a transfer request more than two years ago.

“The State of Michigan took a strategic step today in the race to prevent a catastrophic Line 5 oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac by concentrating its legal efforts in state, not federal, court,” FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood said. “The state’s legal fight and the citizen led movement to protect the Great Lakes, jobs, and a way of life continue full speed ahead.” FLOW said it expects that dropping the 2020 case will result in a quicker decision regarding Line 5 since it will avoid potentially protracted federal court litigation. It said in a release that it finds Judge Neff remand decision was “legally deficient.”

“It’s vitally important to recognize that the action by Governor Whitmer and (DNR) Director Daniel Eichinger in November 2020 to revoke and terminate Line 5’s 1953 easement remains valid,” FLOW Legal Director Zach Welcker said. “While Enbridge continues to trespass in state waters and on state bottomlands, the State of Michigan can now move forward on Attorney General Nessel’s case filed on behalf of the citizens of Michigan in 2019 to shut down the dual pipelines in the Straits.”

A nonprofit that focuses on clean water issues wants Traverse City commissioners to declare access to water and sanitation as a basic human right. For Love of Water, a Traverse City-based organization that has been active in the fight against Enbridge’s Line 5, wants city commissioners to adopt a resolution acknowledging water is necessary for life, rejects treating markets as a tradable commodity and affirms the city’s support for keeping the Great Lakes in the public trust, among other points. East Grand Traverse Bay is the source of the city’s drinking water, as well as a handful of townships that buy it in bulk from the city. The resolution points to a United Nations estimate that future water scarcity will impact 1.8 billion people by 2025 because of climate change, population growth and water overuse.

Michigan residents would pay 3 to 6 cents more for a bottle of water under a plan to sustain Great Lakes water improvements. In addition, bottled water companies would pay 25 cents per gallon of water they pump from the ground to package and sell under the plan proposed by For Love of Water, a nonprofit environmental organization in Traverse City. The plan would put an estimated $250 million annually into a water trust fund to replace lead lines, create water affordability plans and emergency water funds, said Liz Kirkwood,  FLOW’S executive director. The model legislation would do so by putting a royalty on bottled water — not a tax.

Tracking Michigan’s environmental issues has been a long, rewarding and at times arduous undertaking for Dave Dempsey. He was an environment adviser to former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard in the 1980s and now provides policy advice to the Traverse City non-profit For Love of Water. In between were stops at the Michigan Environmental Council and the International Joint Commission.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer has dropped a federal lawsuit seeking to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 oil and natural gas liquids pipeline. But that’s not the end of the legal effort to shut down the line that runs through the Straits of Mackinac.

For Love of Water, a group that wants the pipeline shut down, said in a statement: “The State of Michigan took a strategic step today in the race to prevent a catastrophic Line 5 oil spill in the Straits of Mackinac by concentrating its legal efforts in state, not federal, court,” said FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood. “The state’s legal fight and the citizen-led movement to protect the Great Lakes, jobs, and a way of life continue full speed ahead.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday directed state government to work with the Michigan Legislature and prepare to launch lead service line replacement and other water projects when federal money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is dispersed. “We appreciate Governor Whitmer’s leadership and determination to prioritize water-protection work in the Great Lake State with the new federal infrastructure funds. Michiganders' urgent water needs can’t wait,” said Liz Kirkwood, executive director of FLOW. “We must use this once-in-a-generation infrastructure investment to replace lead lines, modernize drinking water and sewage plants, and clean up PFAS contamination right away. This investment is essential to the public health and prosperity of families and communities, and will support good-paying jobs that cannot be outsourced.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive directive Monday ordering state agencies to ready plans to quickly replace lead pipes using an influx of federal dollars from the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “We must use this once-in-a-generation infrastructure investment to replace lead lines, modernize drinking water and sewage plants, and clean up PFAS contamination right away,” said Liz Kirkwood, executive director of FLOW.

However, a 2015 composite report from scientific advisors for FLOW concludes that a Line 5 shutdown at the Straits would not disrupt propane in the U.P. or Wisconsin. “No more than 5-10 percent of the [light to medium] crude oil in Line 5 is going to the Detroit and Toledo refineries. In reality, it is most likely closer to 5 percent than 10 percent,” the report reads, noting that the “overwhelming majority” of Line 5 oil goes back into Canada rather than Michigan and other states.

Enbridge’s challenge of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Line 5 shutdown order will remain in federal court, as the giant Canadian-based pipeline company wanted. In a 15-page ruling issued late Monday, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff of Grand Rapids rejected efforts to remand the case back to state court, where it began.

Crude oil continues to flow — for now — through Enbridge’s controversial pipeline that serves Toledo-area refineries, among others. But several officials agree that recent events in Washington and elsewhere have kickstarted more controversy, leaving both sides wondering what the long-term outlook is at a time in which climate change, access to clean water, and rising fuel prices have loomed large on the minds of many North Americans.

FLOW announced the election of new officers on its board of directors. Renee Huckle Mittelstaedt becomes the first woman to chair the Traverse City-based Great Lakes law and policy center, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021. Mittelstaedt, the former president and CEO of Huckle Media, LLC/Huckle Holdings Inc., joined FLOW’s board in 2015 and previously was treasurer. Organizational consultant Sarah Naperala is FLOW’s new vice chair. Alma College emeritus professor of Communication, Public Affairs and Environmental Studies and former board chair Mike Vickery is treasurer. Lisa Wyatt Knowlton, an executive advisor and learning leader in leadership, management and policy, is secretary.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued an enforcement order directing the City of Benton Harbor to take specific steps to bring its water system into compliance with federal drinking water law, just months after nearly 20 groups (including FLOW) petitioned the agency to take emergency action. Due to high levels of lead in tap water, the State of Michigan is providing free bottled water to residents.

Northern Michigan has no shortage of impressive green leaders, from nonprofit leaders whose organizations are aimed specifically at protecting the environment, to local businesspeople who have taken it upon themselves to embrace sustainability as a core value. FLOW Executive Director Liz Kirkwood was named among 11 of the local folks leading the charge in areas of green business, alternative energy and environmental preservation.

When former U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee died last week at the age of 92, admirers celebrated his work on behalf of the community of Flint, his support for education and labor and his personal decency. Each of these merited praise, but one aspect of his career escaped mention in most quarters – his environmental values. A lifetime 89% supporter of the environment as measured by the League of Conservation Voters scorecard, Kildee led the successful fight to protect over 90,000 acres of wilderness in 10 areas on Michigan’s National Forest lands. It wasn’t easy.